Columbia/hca Exec Quits

Orlando Hospitals To Change Division With Swedish's Departure

December 31, 1998|By Barry Flynn of The Sentinel Staff

Joseph R. Swedish, a Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. administrator whose career flourished even as his employer came under a wide-ranging federal investigation and fraud indictments, has quit to join a nonprofit hospital group.

Swedish said Wednesday that effective Feb. 1 he will head Centura Health, Colo- rado's biggest health-care system and archrival to Columbia/HCA in that state.

However, Swedish will be overseeing 14 hospitals in the religious-based Colorado group, compared with the 21 Central and South Florida hospitals he now runs.

Swedish said he would be leaving the job ``imminently.''

Meanwhile, Columbia/HCA on Wednesday announced it will split up the division Swedish now heads, effectively eliminating the role of its division administration offices in Winter Park.

The company said it would shift its four Orlando-area hospitals and the two in the Daytona Beach area into a division based in Tallahassee.

The rest of Swedish's East Florida Division, with hospitals from Fort Pierce to South Miami, will be run out of the company's Fort Lauderdale headquarters, Swedish said.

Any job losses would likely be minimal because only about 10 people work in the region's Winter Park office and some functions are likely to remain there, Swedish said.

Swedish, 47, came to Central Florida in 1992 as chief executive of Winter Park Memorial Hospital. After the highly aggressive Columbia/HCA bought Winter Park Memorial in 1994, Swedish took on oversight of all Orlando-area hospitals for the new owner.

And after federal raids and Medicare fraud indictments rocked the company in 1997, Swedish's duties were expanded to oversee more hospitals as the company sought to solve some of its problems.

Last December, Swedish was promoted to his current position.

Swedish described his widened role at Columbia/HCA as one of stabilizing the hospitals, ``getting people focused on health care.''

Also Wednesday, the Justice Department said it joined a second ``whistleblower'' lawsuit against the company.

The suit, brought by former Columbia employee John Schilling, alleges that Columbia/HCA routinely submitted false documentation to Medicare, Medicaid and CHAMPUS, a civilian health-insurance program for the military.